Mammals of Belize

Mammals are a group of animals with backbones, hair-covered bodies, suckle their young with milk, and have a single jaw joint. Mammals are also the group of animals to which humans belong. Belize’s mammals include, but are not limited to, the tapir, monkey, jaguar, gibnut, and kinkajou.

There are two species of monkeys in Belize: Howler and Spider. Monkeys vary in size, with howler monkeys being the largest. Watch out for the monkeys though they are so cute and adorable. The monkeys have been known to throw objects such as stones, fruit, and coconuts at people. Monkeys are as dangerous as any other animal found in nature. Jaguars are Belize’s largest mammals, measuring six feet in length with a thirty-inch tail. Like any big cat, jaguars are dangerous and should not be approached or fed.

Pacas are widely known as gibnuts in Belize and are the most prized game animals in the country. The Queen’s Rat is one of many local names given to the Paca. It is said that the Queen of England fed the Paca on one of her visits to Belize. Pacas are rodents like the capybaras of South America, but they are only half the size and their fur is like a baby deer with white spots.

Because the tapir is the national animal of Belize, it is illegal to hunt and kill it. Belizeans call them “mountain cows.” Mostly nocturnal, tapirs eat grass and fruit. Growing up to six feet long, tapirs are Belize’s largest herbivores. April the tapir is the most famous tapir in Belize. She resides at the Belize Zoo. Every year, sometime in April, Belizeans celebrate April’s birthday with a horse chow cake as local children and visitors gather and sing Happy Birthday to April.

Kinkajou, known as “night walkers” in Belize, are cute and look like lemurs. Kinkajous are nocturnal animals and love fruit and insects. At just six pounds and two and a half feet long, including their tails, Kinkajous love to leap from tree to tree high up in the Belizean jungle canopy.

Belize is home to more than 200 species of mammals, birds, and reptiles. The animals listed above are just a few of the many mammals and even fewer animals in general in Belize. I hope you enjoy the wonderful animals of Belize as much as I do!